Dialogue was never Christopher Nolan's strong suit as a film maker, but it sinks well below standard here. That a man who has been making movies for over two decades would think lines like the title quote are acceptable is staggering.
But it's not just corny, cheesy lines that are the issue... a complicated (yet not complex) film, Tenet exists on almost 100% exposition. The cast deserved better, as the film, between car chases and gunfights, is basically two-and-a-half hours of John David Washington being told the plot.
There are some good performances, with Kenneth Brannagh almost completely submerged in his character, but the characters are little more than ciphers to facilitate the plot. In this sense it's not dissimilar to Nolan's previous effort, Dunkirk, the technical side of things taking precedence over any real emotion or human psychology.
In all honesty Nolan, once quite a talented filmmaker, had been going off the boil for some time. Whether it was Batman getting his spine punched back into place or Blade Runner's iconography being mined for the astonishingly overrated Inception, the wheels were clearly beginning to fall off.
Tenet plays out like an Alice Through The Looking Glass for Top Gear fans, and despite multiple reviews on the IMDb suggesting it needs to be watched at least twice, many of the "twists" are ones that most viewers would see coming an inverse mile away.
But it's not just corny, cheesy lines that are the issue... a complicated (yet not complex) film, Tenet exists on almost 100% exposition. The cast deserved better, as the film, between car chases and gunfights, is basically two-and-a-half hours of John David Washington being told the plot.
There are some good performances, with Kenneth Brannagh almost completely submerged in his character, but the characters are little more than ciphers to facilitate the plot. In this sense it's not dissimilar to Nolan's previous effort, Dunkirk, the technical side of things taking precedence over any real emotion or human psychology.
In all honesty Nolan, once quite a talented filmmaker, had been going off the boil for some time. Whether it was Batman getting his spine punched back into place or Blade Runner's iconography being mined for the astonishingly overrated Inception, the wheels were clearly beginning to fall off.
Tenet plays out like an Alice Through The Looking Glass for Top Gear fans, and despite multiple reviews on the IMDb suggesting it needs to be watched at least twice, many of the "twists" are ones that most viewers would see coming an inverse mile away.